With word of the cancellation of 'American Chopper,' for some reason, we felt a bit reflective. It seems like we've grown along with the Teutul family -- only while we grew with them, they grew apart. The show that brought them fame and fortune also seems to have sent them into familial disarray, leading to lawsuits and lots of other tension. While screaming blow-outs, door smashing and other primal feats of manhood were all too common in the Orange County Choppers headquarters, there's one person who always seemed out of place, and in a sense, innocent from all of the ridiculousness: Mikey. And with the show ending, he's pretty much the one we feel most sorry for.

As family patriarch Paul Sr.'s divisiveness caused major tension with head bikebuilder Paul Jr. and others in the shop, Mikey was always the show's soul -- the lovable, goofy comic relief sorely needed to get between the two territorial bears clawing each other's faces off. Without Mikey, the show never would have lasted the seven years it's been on.

Think about it. Here's essentially every episode of 'American Chopper' in a nutshell: Design and conceptualize a new bike, yell for 40 minutes, show off shiny new bike. To break up the monotony of the same thing happening every episode, there needed to be something that had a bit of spontaneity and flair. That was Mikey.

He seemed to be the only one who could diffuse Senior's tyrannical grip on the shop, whether it was via slapstick comedy or his inherent ineptitude around the shop. As Paul Jr. pranced around in mirrored sunglasses and a beard that looked like it was finely honed with an Exacto knife, Mikey oafed about with hair that hasn't seen a comb since the millenium and a carelessness about life that made everyone else seem like egomaniacal fools. As the show and machismo among the rest of the crew grew, Mikey was the same guy in season six that he was in season one.

In a massive throwdown last year, Junior screamed that OCC "would go to sh-t" if he weren't the one in charge of design. Then, in true hotheaded Teutul style, a chair was launched at a wall (really, are we 12 years old? Grown men having these types of tantrums with such frequency is quite unsettling). Looking to follow suit in an equally inefficient and barbaric manner, Papa Teutul then raged against the machine ... only the machine in this case was a garbage can.

"I'm still getting stepped on, and I need to make a separation," Senior told the New York Daily News last October. "My health was starting to deteriorate."

It's no wonder Mikey is the funny, lax one. He likely had to morph his personality and temperament that way as a defense mechanism. Otherwise, he'd be just as violent and aneurysm-prone as the rest of his family.

The shop tension eventually led to Paul Jr. leaving OCC to start his own design firm, and Paul Sr. eventually sued Paul Jr. for $1 million in stock options according to TMZ. And while a separation from Junior was in need, Teutul didn't foresee the show's demise just yet. "I think I've got another two or three years, maybe," he said of the show in October 2009.

rosco 357

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well i use to watch the show all the time, but since changing shifts at work i have not watched, or really even know when it is on, but i enjoyed the show, i felt the tantrums were part real and part show, i remember when they moved into the new shop, they build some assume bikes, paul jr was good, he was gone alot, which ticked sr off. i forget the assistant the main ones name, i know it but cant think of it, i remember the time they as a surprise roofed his house. his house was nothing special, at all. maybe as the years went on he got paid more, he was smart, they all are and im sure the family has made alot of money,, and will have no problems ,, i remember when sr built his new house.. im sure sr, age was coming into play, or it would eventually, paul jr will do well, he is talented and im sure will have many customers if he chooses to keep building, good article, take care,